No Man’s Sky – From Zero to Hero 

Every good story needs a hero, a villain, and a redemption arc. But did Hello Games really need to both characters?  

No Man’s Sky has one of the most memorable historic redemptions in recent video game history. From a 2014 infamous E3 trailer, a launch filled with huge disappointment, content update after content update, all the way to grateful fans saying thank you with a billboard near the Hello Games office. It’s safe to say No Man’s Sky has become the epitome of how to fix a game.  

Since launch day in 2016, No Man’s Sky has received over twenty free content updates. These updates introduced numerous new features, including underwater bases, multiplayer, and even VR support, all for free! What’s more, the game even launched on Nintendo Switch earlier this month. In this article, we’re looking at the rise, fall, and redemption of No Man’s Sky. 

Rise & Fall 

We got our first glimpse of No Man’s Sky at VGX 2013, where Hello Games unveiled their world premiere trailer for the game. “Every Atom Procedural, Every Tree Procedural, Every… Galaxy Procedural.”   

The trailer showcased an environment and graphics that for 2013 were amazing, with foreign yet familiar-looking flora and fauna. With the promise of unique and unexplored planets for us to make our own, No Man’s Sky stole the show at VGX, with major publications hailing the game as one of next-gen’s most ambitious titles.  

E3 2014 

On the back of the VGX success, No Man’s Sky again stole the show at E3 winning awards for Best Independent Game, Best Original Game, and Special Commendation for Innovation.  

Bright, vibrant worlds, space battles, and discovering new species were among the highlights from the E3 trailer. By this point, the hype train has officially left the station, and the internet was covered in No Man’s Sky screenshots, trailer reviews, and major publications all talking about the game. 

Following E3, the hype continued to grow via interviews with Managing Director of Hello Games Sean Murray talking to the press about the upcoming games features. At this point, the game is still in active development, with many of these features still being worked on. These interviews created enormous expectations for No Man’s Sky that even a much larger games studio would struggle to implement.  

The Launch Delay 

As gamers awaited the launch of No Man’s Sky in June of 2016, the announcement came of a delay to August.  

Two weeks before the official launch, the game leaked. A Reddit user by the handle daymeeuhn claimed to have paid $1250 for an early copy of the game on eBay and published several videos of the game. daymeeuhn noted the game took them about 30 hours to complete, and whilst there were some issues, they remained positive. The leaks didn’t stop there either. Certain publications and retailers broke the review embargo, posting content before release.  

Launch

The game released to a massive audience with a high of two-hundred-thousand concurrent players on Steam in just the first week.  

No Man’s Sky launched on August 12^th 2016, to a lot of negative feedback. The main complaints from players were missing features. During the numerous interviews, post-E3 and leading up to the 2016 launch, large-scale battles, ringed planets, rivers, and more were all discussed or seen in gameplay trailers yet not implemented for day one. Missing features weren’t the only problem either. 

Bugs, bugs, and more bugs was the day-one experience for many players. From your ship flying away without you to textures slowly disappearing. Continuing the woe for early players were the alien creatures that inhabit these worlds and their derpiness.   

Missing Multiplayer 

For most players, this feature broke the illusion of the game being worth playing. In several pre-release interviews being able to play or meet up with friends was said to be possible. However, a few days before the release of the game, Sean Murray would post a couple of tweets contradicting this. They explained No Man’s Sky is not a multiplayer game and players should not go in looking for that experience. This was then almost immediately followed up with a second tweet explaining the universe is simply too large, and it is unlikely for people to bump into one another.  

Making all of this multiplayer drama worse was two players finding out they were just four-star systems away on day one. These two players went to the same planet and lined up their livestreams exactly in the same position, yet couldn’t see each other.  

This was just the tip of the iceberg facing the No Man’s Sky’s launch. In fact, there are so many it’s not possible to cover them all here without beating a dead horse. After all, our hero must rise, and I’m running out of words. Internet Historian broke down more of the problems in their video, which you can watch here. Now onto a redemption arc.  

Redemption 

TLDR: Let’s kick this off with the most important question: Is No Man’s Sky good yet? YES! And it has been for some time. With over twenty content updates, including free virtual reality support and crossplay being added in 2020! No Man’s Sky is one of, if not the best open-world space games there is even today, six years later.  

In 2016 post-launch gamers wrote reviews calling for blood, with some once again sending legitimate threats of violence. However, through all of this the team released update after update, after update. Hello Games have gone above and beyond for the community, adding not only promised features but entirely new unpromised content. To name just a couple, we’ve seen Base building; ground vehicles we can drive; farming; purchasable freighters where we can store multiple ships; terrain editing; underwater biomes; and much more! Over 21 content updates, Hello Games and the team behind No Man’s Sky have consistently created hundreds of hours of additional playtime. 

A Thankful Community 

Not only did No Man’s Sky updates to go on to win several industry awards and nominations, but a group of fans from Reddit teamed up to say thank you. They did this with a billboard near the Hello Games office thanking the team.  

The Story Continues 

Every time we look back at No Man’s Sky, there seems to be another content update and earlier this month, we were treated to just that.  

Hailed as a new era of No Man’s Sky, the 4.0 update brings hundreds of improvements positively impacting on gameplay for both new and returning users. Players will benefit from increased level caps; a relaxed mode with more of a sandbox focus than survival; and hundreds of tweaks available allowing users to create a customised play style. These are just a handful of features from the Waypoint update.  

Ready to jump back out into endless galaxies?  

No Man’s Sky is, without a doubt, a contender for the best space game. With all of these updates, Hello Games have shown sometimes developers can be the hero. Are you playing the Waypoint update or picking No Man’s Sky up for Nintendo Switch? Let us know in the comments.